1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to executing instructions in a processor.
2. Description of the Related Art
In conventional processors, it is often beneficial to immediately use the result of an execution unit or a load/store unit as a source operand for the next instruction without waiting for the result to be first written into a common register file. This is called result forwarding. However, to implement result forwarding, the inputs of each unit in a processor must be connected to every other unit in the processor. Also, because instructions may be executed one or more cycles apart, the register data may be temporarily stored, e.g., in latches.
Unfortunately, for a processor containing multiple pipelines, the size of the interconnections and storage circuitry may become prohibitive.